Raiders cut ties with QB Garoppolo
The Las Vegas Raiders kicked off the start of the new league year by releasing quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo and receiver Hunter Renfrow to give the new regime more room to operate under the salary cap.
The Raiders also released backup quarterback Brian Hoyer and defensive tackle Jerry Tillery.
These decisions had been widely expected, as the Raiders benched Garoppolo midway through last season after Antonio Pierce took over for fired coach Josh McDaniels.
The Raiders had signed Garoppolo to a three-year, $72.75 million contract last offseason to take over as quarterback from recently released Derek Carr, but the move backfired almost from the start.
Garoppolo, who played for the 49ers from 2017-22, made six starts for Las Vegas, throwing nine interceptions and only seven TDs before getting benched.
He then got suspended in February for the the first two games of next season for violating the league's policy on performance-enhancing drugs.
The Raiders will start the offseason with a quarterback competition between second-year player Aidan O'Connell and Gardner Minshew, who agreed earlier this week to a twoyear, $25 million deal.
Las Vegas also could opt to draft a quarterback to add to the mix. The Raiders have the 13th pick in next month's draft.
Renfrow went from being one of the best additions under Jon Gruden's regime to a little-used player the past two seasons under McDaniels and Pierce.
A fifth-round pick in 2019, Renfrow emerged as the focal point of the passing game in 2021, when he had 103 catches for 1,038 yards and nine touchdowns to earn a Pro Bowl nod and help lead the Raiders to the playoffs.
Renfrow was rewarded for that in 2022 with a two-year contract extension worth $31.7 million. But he was unable to repeat that production the past two seasons.
Bobby Wagner is going to the Washington Commanders as they make a major splash in rebuilding their defense.
The six-time All-Pro linebacker has agreed to join the team on a one-year contract worth up to $8.5 million with $6 million in guaranteed money.
Wagner, who turns 34 this summer, led the NFL with 183 tackles last season in his second stint with Seattle after one season with the Rams. He becomes the centerpiece of the defense under Dan Quinn and is another player the new coach is plenty familiar with — Wagner played two seasons for him with the Seahawks in 2013 and '14, winning a Super Bowl together in the process.
In his lone season with the Rams in 2022, Wagner recorded six sacks, 140 total tackles and two interceptions.
Wide receiver Calvin Ridley and the Tennessee Titans agreed on a fouryear, $92 million contract.
Ridley gives young Titans quarterback Will Levis another playmaker. He started all 17 games for the Jaguars last season — his first after missing most of the previous two years because of a broken foot, a mental health break and a yearlong gambling suspension — and finished with 76 receptions for 1,016 yards and eight touchdowns.
• Quarterback Joe Flacco is heading to the Indianapolis Colts after helping the Cleveland Browns reach the playoffs and winning the AP Comeback Player of the Year Award.
Flacco and the Colts agreed on a one-year deal for $4.5 million guaranteed.
Flacco, a former Super Bowl MVP with Baltimore, went 4-1 in five starts for the Brown and passed for over 300 yards in four straight games with 13 touchdowns. He wanted to stay in Cleveland to back up Deshaun Watson but the Browns didn't make him an offer.
Instead, the Browns are bringing in Jameis Winston as Watson's backup.
Flacco turned down an offer from the Philadelphia Eagles to join the Colts. The Saints also had interest in the veteran QB.
He'll help mentor Anthony Richardson with Indianapolis, which let Minshew go to Las Vegas.
Richardson, the No. 4 overall pick in last year's draft, was 2-2 with the Colts before sustaining a season-ending shoulder injury. Indianapolis went 7-6 with Minshew.
The Miami Dolphins released cornerback Xavien Howard, parting with their longest-tenured player.
Howard had 331 tackles and 95 passes deflected in eight seasons with the Dolphins, who selected him at No. 38 in the 2016 NFL draft.
The 30-year-old Howard is a four-time Pro Bowler and was a first-team AllPro in 2020, when he had a league-high 10 interceptions and 20 passes defensed.
The Kansas City Chiefs have restructured quarterback Patrick Mahomes' contract, giving the Super Bowl champions muchneeded salary cap space.
By restructuring the contract, which would have counted more than $58 million against the cap for the upcoming season, the Chiefs created more than $21 million to use elsewhere. That could include a much-publicized pursuit of help at wide receiver, their need for a new left tackle to protect Mahomes' blind side, or in re-signing their own free agents.
Mahomes also adjusted his 10-year, $450 million contract in 2021 to help the Chiefs with their financial situation.
The San Francisco 49ers have added more help to their defensive line, agreeing to acquire defensive tackle Maliek Collins in a trade from Houston for a seventh-round draft pick.
Collins is the latest addition made by the 49ers to their revamped defensive line after they had previously agreed to deals with free agent defensive ends Leonard Floyd and Yetur Gross-Matos, and defensive tackle Jordan Elliott.
San Francisco needed reinforcements on the line with Chase Young, Clelin Ferrell, Javon Kinlaw and Randy Gregory all hitting free agency and Arik Armstead getting released in a cost-cutting move Wednesday.
Collins matched a career high with five sacks last season. He had 11 sacks, 26 tackles for loss and 35 quarterback hits the past three seasons for the Texans.
Armstead was the longest tenured 49ers player having been drafted in the first round in 2015. He had five sacks in 12 games in the regular season in 2023 and added one more in the playoffs. He has 331/2 sacks in 116 games in the regular season and his eight career sacks in the postseason are the second most in franchise history to Nick Bosa's 10.
The Buffalo Bills began replenishing their receiver depth by agreeing to sign Mack Hollins.
Hollins has seven seasons of NFL experience, with his most productive year coming in 2021 when he had 57 catches for 690 yards and four touchdowns with the Raiders. The 30-year-old Hollins spent last season in Atlanta, where he had 18 catches for 251 yards for the runfocused Falcons.